Spectacular miniature homes
- Rebecca and Lucy handcraft tiny interiors that have a timeless quality
- They describe their decorative style as 'euphoric'
- They also re-imagine vintage pieces with textile and paper craft
Rebecca and Lucy Clayton are a mother-and-daughter team who founded their Kensington Dolls House Company in 2023, from Lucy’s home in Kensington, London. Their company began with Lucy’s wish to decorate a doll’s house for her one-year-old daughter – and for it to be “the most spectacular” 12-room doll’s house that ever was. From there, a passion for creating exquisite miniature worlds began, organically and with immediate press attention. “It was built with love and has been received in the same spirit,” explains Lucy. “I had a childhood defined by making things. We have complementary skills that make it easier to produce the look that we envision, with its fantasy and almost childlike aesthetic,” says Rebecca. The creative process of the duo is about transformation and curation, as they like to showcase the work of other expert makers within their projects, too.
INTERVIEW
We create exquisite heirloom doll’s houses. We are not recreating reality but building a world with a hyper-real feeling to it. A kind of kingdom of its own, which we hope stirs an emotional reaction. Each room has a personality and a relationship with colour that is distinct from the room next to it.
We start with an idea, and a mood and reference board, which gives us a North Star for the project. We give each room a colour-way and a very detailed decoration schedule. But this stage can be organic and if we see something does not work, we adapt. And then our favourite part is the making.
Our look is very layered and eclectic, taking references from lots of places: from stately homes and contemporary interiors to Architectural Digest. We find a way to interpret all of that in miniature. We are very inspired by the interiors in the illustrations within vintage children’s books, like Peter Pan, and we reimagine them in 3D.
Doll’s houses have been around since the 16th century. 3D printing has transformed the miniature world as it is a technology that makes anything possible, which is both exciting and saddening because traditional miniature handcrafts are dying out. Lucy's 14-year-old son is our 3D expert!
